So you typed the end. You’re done. Your book is ready for publishing, right?
Nope. Sorry.
There are about 4 writers in every generation who write cleanly enough on the first try. Don’t count on being one of them. In fact I’d say that for most writers, 90% of writing a book is editing that book. I’m not going to go into full detail about how to edit a book, because that could be its own book. But I do have a few tips to share with you, and the first has to do with timing.
Don’t start too soon
There is such a thing as editing too soon— and by that I mean, editing while drafting. This can be such a trap fore new writers, because once you start editing, you won’t stop. And it’s very, very hard to make forward progress on your book if you’re always looking back.
So I always recommend writing that first draft all the way through, embracing all the mistakes you make along the way. Its okay if the first draft is terrible—no one but you is going to see it—so embrace the suck because you can edit anything but a blank page.
Put that book away
After you finish your draft, put it away for a few weeks. Go read a book you love or see the friends you’ve been neglecting whatever you need. This might sound counterintuitive, but trust me. Take a break.
You need to let the story breathe, get some distance. This way when you come back and read your book, you’ll be able to see what you actually wrote and not just the story you think you wrote.
Start with the big picture
The last nuts and bolts editing tip I have for you, is to start big. This is going to be a tough one. You’ve spent however many months drafting, and then more time letting your story sit, I know you just want to dive right in and get to work. Stop.
It can be really tempting to open up your document and dive right in from page one, making all the finicky little sentence changes you can. Resist the urge.
Because you can spend months making every word of your first six chapters perfect, only to discover a plot issue in chapter seven that means you have to go back and delete every perfect word. Not fun. Do not recommend.
Read the book start to finish taking notes as you go so that you can circle back and do the big changes first.
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